If you, or your parents are a regular stock market investor, and suspect that the securities you now own are perhaps less than what you thought they were worth, where then is the missing link?
Do not fret! If you or your kin bought securities, then you would continue to hold ownership rights over them.
You can simply visit the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) Authority portal, and apply in the requisite format.
The reasons for discrepancy could be aplenty. For instance, one of the most common reason could be that the shareholder died and his legal heir(s) were unaware of the existence of those securities.
Or the shares were earlier held in physical format and were not dematerialised. Whatever the case may be, the shares for which dividend is unpaid or unclaimed for a period of seven consecutive years are transferred by the company to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF).
The shareholders are, thereafter, meant to reclaim those shares or dividend from the authority.
ALSO READ: Unclaimed shares or money lying with IEPF? These are the steps to follow to reclaim them
This is the process to find out if you have any unclaimed securities:
1. You need to click on the portal.
2. You can click on the ‘search unclaimed/ unpaid amount’ icon.
3. On the left-hand side, there is an option of 'search unclaimed/ unpaid amount'.
4. This gives the option of entering investor's name i.e., first name, middle name and last name, folio number and client ID.
5. Here you can enter any of the following: name, folio number or client ID, whichever is available.
6. If you only enter the name, it will show all the investors with that name who have their unclaimed shares or sum with IEPF.